The great thing about a fascinating cover version compilation like this is how the songs come through, often in entirely unexpected ways. Punk, Post-Punk, Synthpop all get drawn slowly through a colourful blender and everyone will have an interesting time listening to this.

Befrost (Techny-Call X) start things off as they mean to proceed with Joy Division’s ‘Day of the Lords’ given a rough Industrial Metal treatment, pulsating like an indignant bison and this handling of Curtis vocals is quite unlike anything I have heard people attempt before. Les Modules Etranges almost come up through the middle of a panic-stricken ‘Gloomy Sunday’ and there’s no doubt Gitane Demone would approve because it’s beautiful but corrupted.

I’m afraid if I ever heard Minimal Compact’s ‘Statik Dancin'’ it hasn’t stuck so Do You Believe In The Curse Of The Golden Vampire? may have done anything with this, I just have no idea. It’s pretty spartan, with female vocals moving along the top like crows on a sexy washing line, and fun. That’s the other thing about a compilation like this. Providing the songs chosen have a reputation for being good it’s all going to be of interest. That said, Castrati’s take on Abba’s old classic, now retitled ‘Dancing Queer’ is so addled it sounds like Christian Death in a passport photo booth. Les Modules Etranges restore normality with a wonderfully aromatic and respectfully atmospheric handling of the Banshees’ ‘Nightshift’, the flashes of anger and the inverted delicacy all included. Stolearm throb gracefully through The Cure’s ‘Last Dance’, the music steady, the classy vocals dignified. An Orange Car, Crashed nip about smartly in the cutely dimpled ‘Third Uncle’ (Bauhaus/Brian Eno) which sounds more like ‘Lust For Life’ than you may expect and I ask you to imagine Peter Murphy in a Plastic Bertrand tribute.

The Montreal Nintendo Orkestar blink briefly during a straight ‘(A Taste Of) Radioactivity’, channelling Kraftwerk, and then Thee Virginal Brides version of ‘Girls Just Wanna Have Fun’ (the magnificent Cyndi Lauper) sounds like the kind of thing paranormal investigators hope to find on their tapes in the morning. I’ve listened to it a few times and remain nonplussed. Berlin Wall Lovers are interestingly wired and hollowed out while tackling Suicide’s ‘Ghost Rider’ while the unexpectedly deranged punk Deny Me and Be Doomed offer is like a more proficient Suckdog as they ransack PIL’s ‘This Is Not A Love Song.’ Les Modules Etranges vs TeenageSinTaste potter winsomely through a diminutive ‘Photographic’ by Depeche Mode although I prefer this vocal approach to the original. Similarly I like the more straightforward and less glossy vocal treatment Thesaintcyr give Cocteau Twins’ ‘Shallow Than A Halo’, but not the singing itself, if you get my drift. I’ve always wanted to hear a less sappy-hippy Cocteaus and this is a good attempt.

Bitterness Theory are lovely and their stylish pop version of Modern English’s ‘I Melt With You’ floors you by being so gentle and dreamily melodic. I don’t know what Follow Me Not have done with Stephan Eicher’s ‘Two People In A Room’ having never heard the original, or anything by him. A sweetly drab, doleful song like an Anti-Bill Pritchard. Malaise Rouge quiver strangely and prettily in Numan’s ‘Down In The Park’ but, mysteriously, this versions also reminds of a Who song which I can’t place, just as the original always did. (A strange influence for Numan perhaps, but I think that’s what happened.) Finally it’s delightful to encounter Electric Press Kit again, covering Depeche’s ‘Somebody’ and they’re reliably artistic when doing it, giving it an austere but touching mood that seems slightly off kilter, which is what I’d have expected.

A richly varied compilation then, full of brilliant songs, given some unusual and stirring treatments, which makes it a rather rare beast indeed. Fantastic stuff.